Ten days ago I wrote that a showdown between Haiti's brutal gangs and the Kenyan police hired to take them on seemed imminent. There was a slight delay in that plan. The advance team from Kenya that was sent to Haiti to scout the situation returned home and Kenya's president announced a delay. This story is about a week old.

An advance team of Kenyan police officials who were assessing preparedness before a multinational force is deployed to quell violence in Haiti is heading back home after the planned deployment was delayed over logistical issues.

The team is due to arrive back from Haiti on Monday after recommending a deployment delay that was later announced by the president.

A senior Kenyan official who declined to be named as they are not the official spokesperson said the bases are still under construction and crucial resources including vehicles are needed before deployment of the first 200 police officers from Kenya can take place.

Not a great start to their deployment but given the chaos in Haiti, not a total surprise either. This week there was another development as the council running the country selected a new prime minister.

An experienced international aid official, Garry Conille, was unanimously appointed prime minister of Haiti by a Presidential Transition Council on Tuesday, which tasked him with leading the country out of its current crisis until elections for a new president can be held...

The Kenyan police officers are expected to head to Haiti next month with a daunting mission to help restore order to a country where more than 4,000 people have been killed or injured in gang-related violence this year alone.

U.S. military planes filled with civilian contractors and supplies have already begun landing in Haiti, paving the way for the seven-nation security mission, funded in large part by a commitment of $300 million by the Biden administration.

I don't want to be dismissive but all of this seems a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Until the police arrive to retake control of the capital it really doesn't matter very much who is theoretically in control. The exact date when police will arrive still seems a bit vague but it sounds like the expectation is that it will be another two weeks or so.

Meanwhile, the gangs are once again ramping up the violence in expectation of the coming conflict with the Kenyan police.

In the town of Gressier, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, a group of men armed with semi-automatic weapons set fire to a police vehicle on Monday, sending a thick column of black smoke into the air. They claim to have killed two officers and wounded another. Globe and Mail photographer Goran Tomasevic captured the scene, including the charred remains of an unidentified body lying near the wreckage.

Gang members in the suburb of Croix-des-Bouquets bulldozed their local police station on May 18, tearing at its walls with heavy machinery, seen in a video shared by human-rights activists...

“With the possibility of an international intervention, the gangs are making shows of force,” said Pascale Solages of the Haitian feminist organization Nègès Mawon.

President Biden held a state dinner for Kenya's President Ruto as a way to thank him for sending the troops. The dinner happened last week and now we're just waiting to see what will happen next. Former U.S. special envoy for Haiti Dan Foote isn't optimistic.

“The gangs are just waiting for the Kenyans, they’re just cracking their knuckles and stretching out. … It’s going to be a battle if not a bloodbath of a war, because the gangs are ready, and these guys are like the Keystone Kops.”

Earlier today, President Ruto said he had been given a briefing by the advance team (the one that flew back to Kenya) and he was "confident of the fulfilment" of the mission to Haiti. 

In light of Kenya’s lead role in the UN Security Council mandated Multinational Security support Mission(MSS) to Haiti, I have received a comprehensive brief from the team that undertook an assessment mission to ascertain the state of preparedness for the deployment of our… pic.twitter.com/WCHtOIc2jr

— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) May 31, 2024

We'll have to check back in another two weeks to find out if any progress has been made. Nothing seems to happen fast in Haiti.